Hot air balloon descends into cave

Austrian balloon pilot Ivan Trifonov has succeeded in taking a balloon deep underground. The feat, which is believed to be a world first, was filmed and is being submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records.

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Solar power is growing so fast that older energy companies are trying to stop it

If you ask the people who run America's electric utilities what keeps them up at night, a surprising number will say solar power. Specifically, rooftop solar. That seems bizarre at first. Solar power provides just 0.4 percent of electricity in the United States — a minuscule amount. Why would anyone care?

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Portal 2 Improves Cognitive Skills More Than Lumosity Does, Study Finds

What does it mean when "entertainment" games improve players' test scores more than brain-training programs?

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MH370 search reveals vast underwater world with huge volcanoes and ridges deeper than the Grand Canyon

Until now, scientists had better maps of the surface of Mars than of this ocean floor. These images show for the first time a dramatic underwater landscape with mountains higher than Mont Blanc and ridges deeper than the Grand Canyon – all 4.5 kilometres below the surface of the Southern Indian Ocean. The discoveries were made as part of the hunt for the missing Malaysian airliner, flight MH370, which disappeared six months ago.

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Tooth of Giant 220-million-year-old Reptile Proves Predators Fought Across Land and Sea

The tooth of a 220-million-year-old semi-aquatic phytosaur has been found embedded in the thigh bone of a terrestrial rauisuchid. Both are giant prehistoric reptiles distantly related to the modern crocodile.

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Elon Musk on Mars Colonisation

Elon Musk argues that we must put a million people on Mars if we are to ensure that humanity has a future.

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The Sound So Loud That It Circled the Earth Four Times

In 27 August 1883, the Earth let out a noise louder than any it has made since. It was 10:02 AM local time when the sound emerged from the island of Krakatoa, which sits between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It was heard 1,300 miles away in the Andaman and Nicobar islands (“extraordinary sounds were heard, as of guns firing”)

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Hollow Flashlight Runs on Your Body Heat

Remember that potato clock you made for your high school science fair? Apparently, the bar has been raised quite a bit. Ann Makosinski, a 15 year old student from Canada, made a flashlight for her science fair project – a flashlight powered entirely by the body heat of the hand holding it.

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The Disappearing Sea

Satellite images from NASA show that, over the last 14 years, one of the world's largest inland bodies of water, the Aral Sea in Central Asia, has almost completely dried up and disappeared. (See the source links for more information.)

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Watson in the New Age of Discovery

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Study: Allowing blood donations from gay men could help save over a million lives in U.S.

Lifting a ban on blood donations from gay men would increase the amount of available blood by hundreds of thousands of pints (liters) each year and save more than a million lives a year, a California study showed.

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A Doctor Unlocks Mysteries of the Brain By Talking And Watching

If you have a problem with your heart or liver, the diagnosis will likely be made by a lab test or medical image. But neurologist Allan Ropper says those tests often fail when it comes to the brain.

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551 Feet Under the Sea: What It’s Like to Ride in a Deep-Sea Sub

I heard a screwing noise as the hatch of our sub was sealed. A bright orange hose from topside that had been inserted into the sub to blow fresh air as we loaded had been removed, and the interior felt warm and damp and close. All was still.

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The Water You Drink Might Be Older Than The Sun

Researchers at the University of Michigan simulated the birth of planets and our sun to determine whether water in the solar system predates the sun.

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The Experiment That Forever Changed How We Think About Reality

Is reality blurry or do we just see it that way? In the early days of quantum mechanics, Einstein and other scientists argued that our theories just weren't strong enough. But in this one case, Einstein was wrong and an experiment fundamentally changed how we view reality.

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"Missing Links" Found between Birds and Dinosaurs

Birds didn't evolve in one fell swoop from their dinosaur ancestors, suggests a newly constructed dinosaur family tree showing our feathery friends evolved very gradually, at first.

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Pentagon think tank hires ‘Call of Duty’ creator to advise on future threats to US

You would think war-themed video games copy real life, and not the other way around. Not this time. A Washington think tank has hired the maker of the acclaimed “Call of Duty” game to envision the kind of future wars the US could be fighting.

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Russian Scientists Not Sure What Killed Space 'Sex Geckos'

Russian experts have failed to determine what killed five geckos sent into space as part of an experiment to monitor the effects of zero-gravity on their reproductive systems.

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Mantis shrimps can see cancer, and scientists have now created a camera that does the same

Inspired by the eyes of mantis shrimps, Australian researchers have created sensors that can detect cancer and visualise brain activity.

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Scientists confess to sneaking Bob Dylan lyrics into their work for the past 17 years

While writing an article about intestinal gasses 17 years ago, Karolinska Institute researchers John Lundberg and Eddie Weitzberg couldn't resist a punny title: "Nitric Oxide and inflammation: The answer is blowing in the wind".

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Earth's Water Is Older Than The Sun

Since water is one of the vital ingredients for life on Earth, scientists want to know how it got here. One theory is that the water in our solar system was created in the chemical afterbirth of the Sun. If that were the case, it would suggest that water might only be common around certain stars that form in certain ways. But a new study, published today in Science, suggests that at least some of Earth’s water actually existed before the Sun was born - and that it came from interstellar space.

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This fruit-like fossil may have been one of the world’s first animals

Scientists have discovered fossils of some of the earliest known multicellular organisms, which lived 600 million years ago - and looked a lot like...

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Russian-U.S. Crew Reaches ISS Space Station On Time Despite Glitch

A Russian Soyuz rocket safely delivered a U.S.-Russian trio to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, despite a technical glitch which briefly threatened to lengthen their journey to the $100 billion complex. The Soyuz blasted off to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0225 a.m. (2025 GMT on Thursday) to take Russian Alexander Samokutyaev, his compatriot Elena Serova and U.S. astronaut Barry Wilmore into orbit.

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Out of thin air: is this the world's newest type of cloud?

Ten years ago, Gavin Pretor-Pinney decided to rebrand clouds, or what he likes to refer to as the “patron goddesses of idle fellows.” For too long, clouds had been co-opted by bleak expressions like “head in the clouds” and “under a cloud”; dismissed as stains on otherwise beautiful blue skies; and maligned as harbingers of crummy weather and bummer vibes. Pretor-Pinney wanted to change all that.

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Who's Afraid of Bromine?

As you read this article, you are probably surrounded by bromine - in the chair or sofa you are sitting on. In the carpet on your floor, the curtains at your window, perhaps even the walls of your house. And in the computer whose screen you are staring at.

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Men of All Ages Want Women in Their Mid-20s, Study Says

Straight men of all ages tend to have their romantic sights set on women in their mid-twenties, while women prefer men who are about the same age as they are, according to a new study.

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'Invisibility cloak' closer to reality as New York scientists unveil new device

The magical "invisibility cloak" from the Harry Potter books has moved closer to reality. Scientists at the University of Rochester in New York have discovered a way to hide large objects from sight using inexpensive and readily available lenses. Cloaking is the process that allows an object to become hidden from view, while everything around it appears undisturbed.

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This city is aiming for 100% clean electricity

Beer, BMW, and one of the world's best soccer teams, Bayern Munich: Germany's third largest city has a lot going for it. Not content with sporting, culinary and automotive excellence, Munich is also leading the way when it comes to sustainability.

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Cute Video Shows The Many Ways The Planets And Moons Can Kill You

While we're huge advocates here for space exploration, there certainly is an inherent danger to leaving the Earth. In a humorous way, this new video from the comic Cyanide & Happiness shows why you want to be cautious when exploring space. As the video shows you, the Moon is airless...

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The companies vying to turn asteroids into filling stations

Private companies want to mine asteroids for fuel, and build filling stations in space. A bill now in front of the US Congress would help by allowing them to own what they discover - but it might, if passed, meet stiff international opposition.

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American Polyglot Practicing 20 Languages

A sampling of the languages I've been studying recently. I'm clearly better at some than others, so any critiques or advice would be great! FB: http://ift.tt/Yod6ua Languages used (chronologically): English, French, Hausa, Wolof, Russian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, Chinese, Italian, Turkish, Indonesian, Dutch, Xhosa, Swahili, Hindi, Ojibwe

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The Man on a Quest to Open-Source Cancer Research

Isaac Yonemoto is a chemist, but he’s been writing software code since he was a kid. He calls himself a “semi-recreational” programmer, and now, he’s running an experiment that combines this sideline with his day job. In short, he’s using open source software techniques to kickstart the world of cancer research.

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Engineer Sees Big Possibilities in Micro-robots, Including Programmable Bees

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Robert Wood says that medicine and agriculture can be transformed by micro and "soft" robots.

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Complex molecule discovered in space

Scientists have found the beginnings of life-bearing chemistry at the centre of the galaxy. Iso-propyl cyanide has been detected in a star-forming cloud 27,000 light-years from Earth. Its branched carbon structure is closer to the complex organic molecules of life than any previous finding from interstellar space. The discovery suggests the building blocks of life may be widespread throughout our galaxy.

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It's Outer Space, But With Filling Stations

Private companies want to mine asteroids for fuel, and build filling stations in space. A bill now in front of the US Congress would help by allowing them to own what they discover - but it might, if passed, meet stiff international opposition.

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New evidence of ancient multicellular life sets evolutionary timeline back 60 million years

A Virginia Tech geobiologist with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found evidence in the fossil record that complex multicellularity appeared in living things about 600 million years ago – nearly 60 million years before skeletal animals appeared during a huge growth spurt of new life on Earth known as the Cambrian Explosion.

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India's Mars mission: Picture that spoke 1,000 words

When the crowded command control room of India's Mars mission exploded into applause after it successfully put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet, photographer Manjunath Kiran of the AFP news agency clicked this remarkable image of scientists congratulating each other.

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A galaxy of deception: Hubble snaps what looks like a young galaxy in the local Universe

Astronomers usually have to peer very far into the distance to see back in time, and view the Universe as it was when it was young. This new image of galaxy DDO 68, otherwise known as UGC 5340, was thought to offer an exception. This ragged collection of stars and gas clouds looks at first glance like a recently-formed galaxy in our own cosmic neighborhood. But, is it really as young as it looks?

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Everything Dies, Right? But Does Everything Have To Die? Here's A Surprise

Meet two animals. Both are teeny. Both live in water. Both mature extra fast. But while one dies in about a week, the other — well, prepare to be amazed.

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What makes a student "gifted"? This study says we're getting it wrong

If a school offers separate classes for gifted students, one of the most difficult questions is who should be allowed in and who can benefit. Should students be picked based on their IQ alone, given that IQ scores fluctuate and correlate heavily with race and family income? Or should other factors play a role?

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When Cigarettes Cost More, People Drink Less. Except For Wine

For those who count Don Draper among their TV loves (or love-to-hates), it comes as no surprise that drinking and smoking go hand in hand. Public health researchers have long known that smokers tend to drink, drinkers tend to smoke, and heavy smokers (see: nearly anyone on Mad Men) tend to drink even more heavily.

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Hawking: 'I'm an atheist, science is more convincing than God'

The world's preeminent theoretical physicist has explicitly acknowledged for the first time that he is an atheist, explaining that "science offers a more convincing explanation" of the origins of the universe than 'God.'

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16-Year-Old Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair 2014 With World-Changing Crop Yield Breakthrough

Irish teenagers Ciara Judge, Émer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow, all 16, have won the Google Science Fair 2014. Their project, Combating the Global Food Crisis, aims to provide a solution to low crop yields by pairing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that naturally occurs in the soil with cereal crops it does not normally associate with, such as barley and oats.

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Unleashing An Epidemic To Kill The Tumbleweeds

U.S. Agricultural Research Service scientists have applied to release exotic Eurasian fungi to kill invasive tumbleweeds in the American West.

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The Body Electric

Every year, more than 500 Americans will be struck by lightning—and roughly 90 percent of them will survive. Though they remain among the living, their minds and bodies will be instantly, fundamentally altered in ways that still leave scientists scratching their heads.

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This Device Lets Fully Paralyzed Rats Walk Again, and Human Trials Are Planned

In the past few years, there have been some pretty impressive breakthroughs for those suffering from partial paralysis, but a frustrating lack of successes when it comes to those who are fully paralyzed. But a new technique pioneered by scientists working on project NEUWalk at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL) have figured out a way to reactivate the severed spinal cords of fully paralyzed rats, allowing them to walk again via remote control.

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New Generation of GM Crops Puts Agriculture in a 'Crisis Situation'

With the first of a new generation of genetically engineered crops ready to hit the market, the battle lines are being drawn. These crops and others like them may force a showdown between conflicting approaches to farming: one that depends on chemicals to fight weeds, and another that embraces ecology's lessons.

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Is asteroid mining legal? Congress wants to make it so

A few different companies have recently announced grand plans to mine asteroids for precious metals and other materials.But in addition to all the technological hurdles that would need to be cleared to make this possible, there's an obstacle of a much different sort: the law. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 — a UN treaty signed by 102 countries, including the US — bans countries from appropriating any astronomical bodies.

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Scientists hit new milestone in search for water on planets outside our solar system

Seven hundred and twenty-nine trillion miles away, a planet four times bigger than our own has water in its atmosphere. Of course, the planet is a super hot bundle of gas surrounding a tiny rocky core, so it's not as if that water would support life as we know it.

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Chimps Are Naturally Violent, Study Suggests

For years, anthropologists have watched wild chimpanzees "go ape" and attack each other in coordinated assaults. But until now, scientists were unsure whether interactions with humans had brought on this violent behavior or if it was part of the apes' basic nature.

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